A lot has been made of whether or not OJ Atogwe would be a good fit for us. Some have suggested he would be another big money bust like Wilson, and I admit I am concerned about that as well. My question is this: what is the difference in role or responsibility, or how the position is played, between a FS in a 4-3 and a FS in a 3-4? Are you looking for different qualities? I thought that it was basically the same as far as coverage and communication responsibilities, so the only problem with having a player adjust from one to the other would be mentally grasping the new defense. Are their different demands physically as well? Anyway, you get the idea... I'm sure there will be some guys out there that can enlighten me...

A lot has been made of whether or not OJ Atogwe would be a good fit for us. Some have suggested he would be another big money bust like Wilson, and I admit I am concerned about that as well. My question is this: what is the difference in role or responsibility, or how the position is played, between a FS in a 4-3 and a FS in a 3-4? Are you looking for different qualities? I thought that it was basically the same as far as coverage and communication responsibilities, so the only problem with having a player adjust from one to the other would be mentally grasping the new defense. Are their different demands physically as well? Anyway, you get the idea... I'm sure there will be some guys out there that can enlighten me...

I thought the same as you... I guess it all depends on Mike Nolans scheme rather than the general 4-3, 3-4 argument in and of itself. What did he do with his Free Safety when he was in Denver? Would Atogwe fit that style?

The way I understand it, coverages can be the same between a 43 team and a 34 team in the back end. It just comes down to your DC and his system.

Rex Ryan the other day was talking about defensive transformations, and how if it is just a switch to a 34 in the front than it's not a big deal, but if you are also changing up your coverages it can be a big deal. So I don't think it has to do as much with what your front 7 looks like as opposed to your DC.

I think Atogwe would fit well. He's good enough against the run that he can play, (and is very good at), near the box in run support. He's a good tackler in the open field (Coach Sparano's #1 thing for his safeties, free or strong), and makes plays on the ball.

I think right now Miami is pretty spread out at FS. By that I mean you have a bunch of different guys who do their own thing. Culver is a good man coverage safety; Clemons is a good center fielder and can play downhill pretty well; Reshad Jones is an in-the-box type safety who specializes in stopping the run and being an enforcer in the redzone. If one of those guys gets hurt, we don't have another guy in place that can do his job. For example if Culver gets hurt, who becomes our 3rd/3rd down/nickel safety? Clemons and Jones do not have the cover skills necessary to do that. So I think what Atogwe brings is an all-around guy who can do all the jobs you need him to do. He can play in the box, center field, do some man-to-man on a TE, etc.

The question then becomes who is the odd man out? Miami isn't going to keep 5 safeties...

Miami will not go into the territory that Otogwe supposedly wants, which is 6-7 mill/per year. But with teams saying they are not interested and dropping out of the running, if that number get's into the 4-5 mill range, the Dolphins may make a move.

I know Jeff Ireland said the team is happy with the young safeties in place right now, but the Dolphins supposedly had no interest in Brandon Marshall either at one point.

Actually, Otogwe may have come out better signing the 1 year tenure, as team as worried about his injuries over the past year. I don't believe he will get what he is looking for, but then again, it only takes one team and St. Louis may step up to keep him. Lord knows they need all the good players they can get.

I think it comes down to how well you can play field, and not just the run or the pass. All good (fs) play them both well no matter what schem is in front of them. The realy good 1s like E.Reed and T.Pallumalla both just happen to play in a 3-4 type d-fence. So IMO we need a guy who can play both run and pass well, and I'm not sure we have a guy like that.......yet..